We examine non-Abelian topological defects in an Abelian lattice model in two dimensions. We first construct an exact solvable lattice model that exhibits coexisting and intertwined topological and classical orders. The anyon types of quasiparticle excitations are permuted by lattice symmetry operations like translations, rotations, and reflections. The global anyon permutation symmetry has a group structure of
S3, the permutation group of three elements. Topological crystalline defects---dislocations and disclinations---change the anyon type of an orbiting quasiparticle. They exhibit multichannel order-dependent fusion rules and projective braiding operations. Their braiding and exchange statistics breaks modular invariance and violates the conventional spin-statistics theorem. We develop a framework to characterize these unconventional properties that originate from the semiclassical nature of defects.
We construct a two-dimensional (2D) quantum spin model that realizes an Ising paramagnet with gapless edge modes protected by Ising symmetry. This model provides an example of a ``symmetry-protected topological phase.'' We describe a simple physical construction that distinguishes this system from a conventional paramagnet: We couple the system to a
Z2 gauge field and then show that the $\ensuremath{\pi}$-flux excitations have different braiding statistics from that of a usual paramagnet. In addition, we show that these braiding statistics directly imply the existence of protected edge modes. Finally, we analyze a particular microscopic model for the edge and derive a field theoretic description of the low energy excitations. We believe that the braiding statistics approach outlined in this paper can be generalized to a large class of symmetry-protected topological phases.
We present details of a mathematical theory of superselection sectors and their statistics in local quantum theory over (two- and) three-dimensional space-time. The framework for our analysis is algebraic quantum field theory. Statistics of superselection sectors in three-dimensional local quantum theory with charges not localizable in bounded space-time regions and in two-dimensional chiral theories is described in terms of unitary representations of the braid groups generated by certain Yang-Baxter matrices. We describe the beginnings of a systematic classification of those representations. Our analysis makes contact with the classification theory of subfactors initiated by Jones. We prove a general theorem on the connection between spin and statistics in theories with braid statistics. We also show that every theory with braid statistics gives rise to a “Verlinde algebra”. It determines a projective representation of SL(2, ℤ) and, presumably, of the mapping class group of any Riemann surface, even if the theory does not display conformal symmetry.
We study local spin measurements on bipartite singlet states when rotational symmetry is described by a quantum group rather than an ordinary Lie group. Although the fundamental spin-1/2 representation has the usual one-particle action on states, the non-trivial coproduct selects a deformed analogue of the Bell singlet state. We show that conventional tensor-factor measurements on this invariant singlet lead to deformation-dependent one-site outcome statistics. We then compare this standard-local prescription with a braided-local one, obtained by dressing local observables with the R-matrix and using the corresponding braided inner product. The braided observables are covariant under the Hopf adjoint action, but define a distinct measurement structure and lead to the reciprocal bias on the deformed singlet state.